Bobby pin spreader



May 3%, 190 W. A. WILLIAMS ET AL BOBBY PIN SPREADER Filed April 24. 1947 YEN TOPS MLL/AM 4 M41. news Map/4 MLL/fi/va Patented May 30, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT DFFICE BOBBY PIN SPREADER William A. Williams and Muriel Williams, Denver, coin.

Application April 24, 1947, Serial No. 743,480

6 Claims. 1

This invention relates to facilities 'advanta geously employable to enhance the convenience and expedition of certain hairdressing o erations, and has as an object to provide an improved device effective through single-hand operator manipulations to separate the unequal length prongs of conventional bobby pins and thereby condition such pins for immediate use.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved device susceptible of convenient fixed support in position for bobby pin prongseparating reaction to single-hand operator manipulations.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved bobby pin opener that is simple and inexpensive of manufacture, effectively reactive to normal, natural operator manipulations, readi- 1y adaptable to either temporary or permanent installation in a. variety of normally-available specific mountings, that is positive and efficient in attainment of the ends for which designed, durable and long-lived in use, and productive of time economies and other practical advantages in the operations to which it is pertinent.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, our invention consists in the construction, arrangement, and combination of elements here inafter set forth, pointed out in our claims, and illustrated by the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure J. is a vertical section, on an enlarged scale, taken centrally through a typical embodiment of the improvement in one permanently mounted arrangement ready for practical use in the manner exemplified by the fragmentary showing of a bobby pin separable end in its initial engagement therewith. Figure 2 is a side elevation, on a reduced scale, of the device shown in Figure 1 as modified for and disposed in an alternative permanent mounting. Figure 3 is a View similar to Figure 2 illustrating the device of Fi ure 1 in a readily-available, temporary mounting effective to position the unit for practical use. Figure 4 is a side elevation of the device according to Figure 3 disassociated from any mounting or support. Figure 5 is a top plan view of the showing of Figure 4. Figure 6 is a front face elevation of the showing of Figure 4.

The bobby pin type of hairpin, a development wherein two metal prongs of slightly different lengths. one or both of which may be corrugated, are spring-urged by means of an integral eye at one end of the assembly into resilientl'y separable interengagement throughout their aligned of registration longitudinally of the assembly, has come into extensive and widespread use as'a hairdressin facility, in both the boudoir and professional salon. The bobby pin serves in useas a clamp to grip and retain adjusted strands of hair, to which functioning an essential prerequisite is "the separation of the unit free ends and retention of said ends in separated relation. against the spring pressure inherent in the assembly While the so-spaced prongs of thepin are positioned relative to the hair ultimately clam'pable there between The placing, arrangement, and ad justine'nt of hair strands incident to development of the desired coifiure, being manual operations, normally occupy at least one hand of the operator for the maintenance of a given adjustment when it is opportune to fix the same by means of a bobby pin, thereby limiting the Operator to the use of but one hand for the grasping, opening, and positioning of the bobby pin or pins. Neces 'sary one-hand manipulation of successive bobby pins during hairdiessifl'g operations has resulted in the practice, by many operators, of catching the pin longer prong against the teeth as afpinopening initialinahiiever, with consequent ultimate damage to one or more of the operator's teeth, or, alternatively, of wedging a thumb or fingernail between the pin prongs, with damage to the nail o'r nails so used and laceration of the digit flesh adjacent the nail. The difficillfies characterizing the one-hand manipulation de scribed, and the undesirable consequences of the pin-opening techni ue heretofore commonly practiced, ()Ieaily point the desirability of a Contenant and efiic'ien't pin-openin appliance, to the provision whereof the: instant invention is directed. V

Throughout the illustrated structural variatibi ls' Of the im rovement, tneportion Of the de- Vice 'cboprlb le with and 'efi'edtiv' to open or spread b'ohb'y pins is identical, the differences distinguishing tieitain views of the drawing pertainil'lg t0 and meeting only the means fol mounting and operatives upporting the unit. AS shown, a straight strip III, of hard, rigid material, such as metal,- and suitable length, is worked to transvrsely-arcuate Torin throughout most of its length, thereby to enhance the longitudinal rigidity of the strip and to permit of its fabrication from rentfvel thin, othe wise un uly flexible material, and is finished With a rounded free and H disposable as the upper end of the unit when positioned for pr'actical us'e. Spaced inwardly from the strip and u a, distance afififoiiiinating the 'iii'axi'iiiufii pfati'cable spread of the in prongs to be separated, an elongate slot I2 opens through the strip material in perpendicular, symmetrical relation of its major dimension with the longitudinal median line of the strip, said slot having an extent transversely of the strip preferably exceeding the strip half width and a separation between its parallel, long margins longitudinally of the strip sufficient to freely receive and loosely accommodate the projecting end of the bobby pin longer prong and insuflicient to readily accommodate the double-prong body of such a pin. Longitudinally outward of the strip ID from the slot I2, a central portion of the strip end I I corresponding in width to the length of the slot is flattened to present a plane area I3 offset away from the convex and toward the concave side of the strip in a manner to leave the slot I2 inner long margin arched transversely of the strip and projecting as a step or shoulder I4 beyond the plane of the area I3 and the slot I2 outer long margin included in said plane.

For purposes of practical use as a bobby pin spreader, the strip II) should be disposed with its length vertical, it end lI uppermost, and its convex surface exposed in a position and presentation conveniently within reach by the free hand of a hairdressing operator, and an integral, fiat extension of the strip If] length in a direction away from the strip end II adequately serves, in

a variety of workings and dispositions relative to I said strip, as mounting means engageable with generally-available supports to fix and present the strip in the desired position of its use. As represented by Figure 1, an initially alined, integral,

flat extension of the strip I is bent at its junction with said strip to project on the concave side of and at right angles with said strip as a mounting base I5 engageable against any suitable flat surface, in the manner shown, to support the strip III in upstanding relation with and above such surface, in which position of use the said strip may be retained and secured by means of screws I6 engaged through holes worked for that purpose in the base I5 and with the material of the supporting surface. The arrangement of Figure 1, adapted for permanent mounting of the strip I0 on and relative to a horizontal surface, may be modified as shown in Figure 2 to adapt the device for permanent mounting on and relative to a vertical supporting surface, the only change required being a second bend in the strip material of the device on a line transversely of the base I5 paralleling and spaced from the bend at the junction of the elements I0 and lli and in a direction effective to dispose thebase I5 free end portion car'ryingthe screw-accommodating holes as a tang I5 paralleling and extending in offset relation with and oppositely from the strip II! for bearing engagement with any suitable vertical surface to mount. said strip ID in upstanding, spaced parallelism therewith when the screws I6 are, engaged through the holes in said tang and with the material of the supporting surface. In 'additionto its adaptation to permanent mountings as shown and above described, the base I5 arrangement shownin Figure 1 is employable, whether or not provided with screw holes, for convenient temporary mounting of the device in ,the manner typified by Figure 3. In the latter figure, the numeral I'I designates the front panel .of a movable unit, such as a drawer, slidable relativeto an upper closure member I8, and the improved device is mounted as shown by engaging the .free end v of its base I5 in the narrow crack gor'opening normally found between the relatively movable elements of bureaus, dressing tables, and the like. When the crack or slide opening is too large to suitably wedge and hold the base I5, the latter may be engaged beneath, instead of above, the drawer or slidable member whereof the panel I! is a part, so that the weight of said slidable member may bear against the base 15 and adequately immobilze the device.

However mounted and retained in the desired position of use, the slotted, free, upper end of the device is utilized to facilitate the spreading of bobby pin prongs in the manner indicated in Figure 1. A typical bobby pin, having a longer prong I9 and a shorter prong 20, is grasped in the fingers of an operator and presented to the strip III with its shorter prong uppermost and its separableprong ends directed toward the convex surface'of said strip. Gripped by the operator somewhere along its midlength, the pin is urged toward the strip convex surface until the longer prong I9 end engages thereagainst and is then moved upwardly with said prong end sliding along the surface until the surface interruption at the shoulder I4 is reached, at which point the prong I9 end enters the slot I2 to the distance permitted by engagement of the prong 20 end against the edge of the flat surface I3 and the pin is in the relationship with the device shown in Figure 1. The prong I9 end being engaged with the slot I2, slight upward pressure exerted on the pin by the fingers serve to lift the prong 20 away from the prong I9, the latter being largely released from manual grip, so that the finger balls on the opposite sides of the pin may be approached within the area between the separated prongs and therein moderately wedged to hold the prongs apart while the pin is retracted from the prong I9 engagement within the slot I2 and manipulated to the desired insertion within and clamping relation with the hair being dressed. The width of the slot I2 in relation to the thickness of the prong I9 end receivable therein is preferably such as to readily receive said prong end when the pin length is at a slight angle to the horizontal, with its head or eye end lowermost, as suggested by the Figure 1 showing.

Since many changes, variations, and modifications in the specific form, construction, and arrangement of the elements shown and described may be had without departing from the spirit of our invention, we wish to be understood as being limited solely by the scope of the appended claims, rather than by any details of the illustrative showing and foregoing description.

We claim as our invention- 1. A bobby pin spreader comprising a single, transversely-arcuate strip of hard, rigid material, means at one end for supporting said strip in longitudinally-upstanding relation with its free other end uppermost and its convex surface presented for ready availability, an elongate slot opening transversely through said strip inwardly and adjacent the free upper end thereof, and a flattened strip surface area bridging between adjacent slot and strip free end margins in chordal relation with the strip transverse curvature.

2. Abobby pin spreader comprisin a single, transversely-arcuate strip of hard, rigid material,

means at one end for supporting said strip in longitudinally-upstanding relation with its free other end uppermost and its convex surface presented for ready availability, an elongate slot opening transversely through said strip inwardly tened stripsurface area bridging between adjacent slot and strip free end margins in chordal relation with the strip transverse curvature, and a consequent oiTset shoulder in the transverselyarcuate length of said strip defined by intersection of the slot inner long margin with the arouate strip body opposite said flattened area.

3. A bobby pin spreader comprising a, unitary L-shaped member of hard, rigid, strip material formed with a transversely-arcuate leg and a fiat leg engageable with a support to mount the transversely-arcuate leg in longitudinally-upstanding relation with its free end uppermost, and an elongate slot opening transversely through said arcuate leg inwardly and adjacent the free upper 4. A bobby pin spreader comprising a unitary L-shaped member of hard, rigid, strip material formed with a transversely-arcuate leg and a fiat le extending perpendicularly from the concave side of the arcuate leg for engagement with a support to mount the arcuate leg in longitudinally-upstanding relation with its free end uppermost and its concave surface presented for ready availability, and an elongate slot opening transversely through said arcuate leg inwardly and adjacent the free upper end thereof.

5. A bobby pin spreader comprising a unitary L-shaped member of hard, rigid, strip material formed with a transversely-arcuate leg and a fiat leg extending perpendicularly from the concave side of the arcuate leg for engagement with a support to mount the arcuate leg in longitudinally-upstanding relation with its free end uppermost and its concave surface presented for ready availability, an elongate slot opening transversely through said arcuate leg inwardly and adjacent the free upper end thereof, and a flattened end surface area bridging between adjacent slot and free end margins in chordal relation with the arcuate leg transverse curvature.

6. A bobby pin spreader comprising a unitary L-shaped member of hard, rigid, strip material formed with a transversely-arcuate leg and a flat leg extending perpendicularly from the concave side of the arcuate leg for engagement with a support to mount the arcuate leg in longitudinally-upstanding relation with its free end uppermost and its concave surface presented for ready availability, an elongate slot opening transversely through said arcuate leg inwardly and adjacent the free upper end thereof, a flattened end surface area bridging between adjacent slot and free end margins in chordal relation with the arcuate leg transverse curvature, and a consequent offset shoulder in the transversely-arcuate length of said arcuate leg defined by intersection of the slot inner long margin with the arcuate leg body opposite said flattened area.

WILLIAM A. WILLIAMS. MURIEL WILLIAMS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 466,643 Wolf Jan. 5, 1892 1,163,399 Fox Dec. 7, 1915 2,150,144 Andersen Mar. 14, 1939 2,305,925 Josephs Dec. 22, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 5,520 Great Britain of 1894 293,586 Great Britain July 12, 1928 Certificate of Correction Patent N 0. 2,509,897 May 30, 1950 WILLIAM A. WILLIAMS ET AL.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction as follows:

Column 5, line 14, after upper insert the Words and period end thereof;

and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the some may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office. Signed and sealed this 22nd day of August, A. D. 1950.

THOMAS F. MURPHY,

Assistant Uommz'ssz'oner of Paten'ts 

